An internship at Center of Concern led to a Community Star Award for Des Plaines resident Nesrin Yilmaz. A student at Oakton Community College studying human services, Yilmaz was searching for an internship opportunity and was accepted by the Center of Concern as a summer volunteer last year. In...

Local sports

There are players with perseverance, and then there's Billy McCormick. Thwarted three years in a row in his attempt to stick on one of the Loyola boys basketball squads, the senior forward finally secured a long-coveted spot on the varsity this winter. How he arrived at his current athletic peak...

Maine South wrestling coach Kevin Hansen said junior Jon Halvorsen is mentally tough and Halvorsen demonstrated just that en route to a third-place finish at the Class 3A state tournament at 182 pounds. His matches were not for the faint of heart. The Park Ridge resident, who finished second at...

After defeating the Maine South girls basketball team 62-48 in the Class 4A Maine East Sectional semifinals Monday, Loyola is going to the movies. Ramblers coach Jeremy Schoenecker said he will be viewing a 36-hour Maine West film marathon to prepare for the Ramblers' sectional title game against...

At the time, Caleigh Pistorius said she viewed winning the 2017 state title in the balance beam as the pinnacle of her career. By becoming the first Maine South girls gymnast to be named state champion and just the second to win a state medal, Pistorius set a new standard for the program. But Pistorius,...

Will Jones, an Evanston alumnus and a senior on the Monmouth College men's basketball team, helped the Fighting Scots earn a share of the Midwest Conference regular-season title on Feb. 13. Monmouth, a Division III program, clinched at least a tie for first place in the MWC with an 82-60 win against...

Maine South will make its first appearance as a team at the girls gymnastics state meet this weekend in Palatine, and the Hawks ended the drought in emphatic fashion. The Hawks edged out three-time defending state champion Prairie Ridge to win the Hoffman Estates Sectional on Feb. 7 Maine South...

Other area news

The Cook County sheriff's department bomb squad remained on the scene with Skokie police at Niles North High School in Skokie late Wednesday afternoon, nearly two hours after the school building was evacuated due to what officials called a bomb threat. Students were bused to nearby Niles West High...

Michele Marsh brings a lot of history — and not a little humor — to her job as the long-time office clerk/school secretary at Union Ridge Elementary School in Harwood Heights, also her alma mater. Her picture is there with all the class photographs — a little way down the wall, in black and white....

After watching his older brother and sister perform in theatrical productions at Prospect High School, Arlington Heights resident Patrick McDermott was so smitten by the spotlight that his father built him a stage in the basement of their family's home. Five years later, Patrick, 9, has four professional...

Rodrigo Gonzalez is a junior at Guerin College Preparatory High School. Gonzalez recently performed with the High School Honors Performance Series at Carnegie Hall. Q: Where did you grow up and go to school? A: I'm from Chicago. I went to St. Bartholomew School. Now I go to Guerin College Prep....

Sally Sprowl recently moved to Northfield after many years in Winnetka. She has been the Glencoe Chamber of Commerce's executive director for more than eight years. How did you wind up at the Glencoe Chamber of Commerce? My background is in public relations and communications. Immediately before...

Two Chicago grade school students who wanted to play hooky from school Tuesday reported they had been kidnapped and dropped off at a Skokie office building, according to Chicago police. Chicago and Skokie police came to the building Tuesday afternoon in the 5500 block of West Touhy Avenue — near...

Park Ridge, Des Plaines community posts

Famed labor union leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta brings her message to Oakton Community College's Des Plaines campus, 1600 E. Golf Road, at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 1, in the TenHoeve Center. The free event is open to the public and is part of Women's History Month at Oakton. Huerta...

On Saturday, February 24, 2018, hundreds of participants will take part in the 9th annual CHICAGO Dance Marathon. From 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., participants will hit the dance floor in the Chicago Marriott Downtown (540 N. Michigan Ave.) for eight straight hours of dancing-all in support of a good cause....

Always the first to try something new and a compassionate leader with a desire to create a safe workplace for all associates, this registered nurse goes above and beyond in making the emergency department at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital an amazing place to work. Because he embodies Advocate...

MAYWOOD, IL - t takes an average of 3.5 years to diagnose celiac disease in patients who do not report gastrointestinal symptoms, a Loyola Medicine study has found. Patients who reported gastrointestinal symptoms were diagnosed in an average of 2.3 months. The study by senior author Mukund Venu,...

On Thursday, March 8, YWCA Evanston/North Shore will screen the documentary "I Am Jane Doe," in commemoration of International Women's Day. The screening will be held at the Unitarian Church of Evanston, 1330 Ridge Avenue, and will begin with a check-in/reception at 5:45 p.m. "I Am Jane Doe" chronicles...

The mixed media artwork of Rhonda Popko will be on display at the Des Plaines Public Library, 1501 Ellinwood Street, throughout the month of March. Rhonda studied painting, printmaking and drawing at the Art Institute of Chicago and Northeastern Illinois University. Afterward, she taught at the...